144 
PRODUCTION  OF  SCAMMONY  NEAR  SMYRNA. 
Greek  scammony  it  is  therefore  broken  into  irregular  pieces  or  rough 
lumps,  and  allowed  to  dry  in  that  state.  Its  long  confinement 
causes  it  to  ferment,  and  this  makes  it  porous  and  lose  its  gloss. 
It  is  this  kind  which  is  usually  sold  in  London  as  Lachryma  Scam- 
mony, and  although  excellent  pieces  may  be  picked  out  of  it,  the 
bulk  is  greatly  inferior  to  that  collected  by  the  Greeks.  The  best 
lots  of  this  sort  may  contain  seventy-six  per  cent,  of  rosin. 
There  is  also  a  considerable  quantity  of  scammony  sold  in  Lon- 
don in  rough  lumps,  which  is  very  inferior,  and  yet  is  sometimes 
lighter  in  weight  than  the  pure  sort.  This  scammony  is  prepared 
by  the  dealers  in  the  interior  of  the  country.  When  starch  has 
been  added,  it  continues  light  in  weight  but  becomes  tenacious. 
The  usual  mixture  is  wheat-starch,*  wood  ashes,  earth  (not  always 
calcareous),  and  gum  arabic,  or  gum  tragacanth — occasionally  wax, 
yolk  of  egg,  pc^nded  scammony  roots  and  leaves,  flour,  or  resin 
are  added.  These  mixtures  vary  so  much  that  it  is  almost  impossi- 
ble to  find  two  parcels  exactly  alike.  This  adulterated  scammony 
is  put  into  drums,  and  scammony  nearly  pure  and  about  as  liquid 
as  honey  is  put  on  the  top  to  give  it  a  good  appearance  and  to  pre- 
vent detection,  which,  without  this  precaution,  would  not  be  diffi- 
cult, the  surface  of  the  adulterated  drug  being  always  dry. 
There  is  also  a  quality  of  scammony  prepared  at  Angora  and 
sent  to  Constantinople  for  sale.  It  is  composed  of  from  thirty  to 
forty  per  cent,  of  scammony  with  sixty  to  seventy  of  starch,  and  is 
called  Skilip.f  This  quality  is  much  used  in  Austria,  where  cheap 
drugs  are  required  without  much  reference  to  efficacy. 
There  are  also  two  kinds  of  scammony  used  largely  in  England 
and  Scotland.  The  better  kind  termed  First  quality  prepared,  is 
made  up  into  thick  smooth  cakes  or  loaves,  and  shipped  in  cases 
or  drums.    When  packed  the  cakes  are  sometimes  broken  up.  This 
*  The  scammony  collected  near  Smyrna  is  rarely  adulterated  with  starch 
by  the  peasants. 
t  Skilip  or  Is/cilip  is  a  Turkish  word,  and  used  to  designate  a  fictitious  sub- 
stance. For  instance,  a  species  of  yellow  berry  which  is  small  and  contains 
little  or  no  dye,  is  termed  skilip.  Spurious  gum  tragacanth  and  inferior  An- 
gora scammony  are  known  under  the  same  name,  but  1  am  not  aware  of  any 
other  drug  or  produce  of  any  kind  to  which  (his  term  is  applied.  The  origin 
of  the  word,  however,  is  derived  from  a  Turkish  town  near  Angora  called 
Iskilip. 
